Wakasa Town

Winter water runs in the turntable pit.

Turntable, Wakasa Station

Photo by 663highland (CC BY 2.5)

01 ／ Wakasa-juku's Town Agreement

After the fire, the Wakasa-juku council decided:houses set back about 3.3m, with eaves and a channel.

After the great fire of 1885 (Meiji 18), the Wakasa-juku council resolved an 11-article agreement. Houses were to stand about 3.3m back from the road, with eaves ('kariya') about 1.2m wide and a channel about 60cm wide. Homes were banned and new storehouses allowed, so the row of storehouses is thought to have formed.

1885: 11-article agreement after the fire
Houses set back about 3.3m; eaves about 1.2m, channel about 60cm
Kuradori: 20 storehouses along about 300m

02 ／ Fudoin Iwayado

In 1581, amid Hideyoshi's fires,the cave hall is said to have survived.

A hall on stilts built inside a rock cave, facing the Yoshikawa River, a tributary of the Hatto River. A record book kept by locals says that when Hashiba Hideyoshi's troops attacked Tottori Castle in 1581 and set fires, only Iwayado was left. The town says a large goma fire ritual is held on the last Sundays of March and July.

Stilted hall inside a cave (Important Cultural Property, designated 1953)
1581: said to have survived the fires
Goma ritual on the last Sundays of March and July (town site)

03 ／ Ochiori's Taira Legend

Taira no Tsunemori and some 20 retainersare said to have hidden in this hill hamlet.

平経盛の墓.jpg — Photo by C2revenge (CC BY-SA 4.0)

In Ochiori, halfway up Togura Pass, legend says Taira no Tsunemori, Kiyomori's younger brother, and some 20 retainers fled here, hoping to revive the Taira clan. A cave where they are said to have hidden, and a stone pagoda said to be Tsunemori's grave, remain in the hamlet. As of 2011, all 15 households bore the surname 'Heike'.

Legend of Tsunemori and some 20 retainers
Halfway up Togura Pass
2011: all 15 households bore the surname 'Heike'

Living here

At the foot of Mt. Hyonosen, 95% of the land is forest.

about 3,000 people
Rural district town

Wakasa is a mountain town in the southeast corner of Tottori Prefecture, bordering Hyogo and Okayama. Surrounded by peaks over 1,300m, including Mt. Hyonosen (1,510m), it is 95 percent forest. Ten rivers, large and small, join within the town to form the Hatto River, which flows on to the Sendai River. It is a snowy land, and the old post-town street still has kariya, eaves that shelter walkers from snow.

People living here: 2,864people
Area: 199.18km²
Households: 1,182households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 0 hospitals ／ 3 clinics

Area and habitable land at the same scalee-Stat B1101 / B1103

Children waiting for childcare: —1 nurseries and similar
Home purchase subsidy: —
Average annual temperature: —

These 3 items are waiting on a nationwide data source. We do not fill them with estimates.

Shape

Borders 8 municipalities across 2 prefectures.

Wakasa Town in Japan35.340°N 134.401°E

Territory of Wakasa Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

23.7km

Tottori Prefecture: 八頭町, 智頭町, 鳥取市
Hyogo Prefecture: 宍粟市, 香美町, 新温泉町, 養父市
Okayama Prefecture: 西粟倉村

Travel times per leg are not published by the municipality, so they are not shown.

Wakasa Town isthis kind of town.

01The locomotive turntable at Wakasa Station, the terminus of the Wakasa Railway, dates from 1930 (Showa 5); it is 15m across and turned by hand. Its pit is bowl-shaped, and in winter running water is fed in to melt snow and prevent freezing. A snow-flushing channel about 278m long also runs through the station yard, and 23 Wakasa Railway facilities (9 in the town) are nationally registered tangible cultural properties.
02Wakasa-juku's streetscape was laid out after the 1885 fire on the basis of the Wakasa-juku council's agreement, and survives as Kuradori and Kariya-dori. Fudoin Iwayado, in a rock cave in the Iwayado hamlet, is a national Important Cultural Property, and in Ochiori, on Togura Pass, a legend tells that Taira no Tsunemori hid.
03The ruins of Wakasa Onigajo Castle on Mt. Tsuruo are a national historic site, where walls broken by hand at the time of abandonment still remain. Mt. Hyonosen lies to the east, 95 percent of the town is forest, and the town's rivers join to form the Hatto River.

See the town as it is now.

Facebookwakasatown ↗

Source: Wikidata (P2002, P2003, P2013, P2397)

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Wakasa Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗